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V. Esperanto Is Born 

The international language project was put into its final form in the spring of 1885 in 

Wiejsieje, where Zamenhof had begun to practice medicine. He spent the next two years 

looking for a publisher until his prospective father-in-law, Sender Zilbernik, even before 

the marriage, suggested paying for the publication out of his daughter's dowry. The 

Warsaw printer Chaim Kelter gladly agreed to take on the work. On the 14

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 of July, 

1887, after typesetting and vetting by the censor, the 42-page booklet appeared under the 

title, Meždunarodny’ jazyk. Predislovije i polnyj učebnik (por Rusoj), i.e. International 

Language. Foreword and Complete Textbook (For Russian Speakers). The 27-year-old 

author hid himself behind the pseudonym D-ro Esperanto, Doctor Hopeful. This 

publication date (July 26 in the Gregorian calendar) is considered Esperanto's birthdate. 

Before the end of the year, Kelter printed the Polish, French and German versions of 

the booklet, which later was became popularly known as the Unua Libro (First Book). The 

Russian version had to be reprinted only six months after the initial printing. Translations 

and adaptations followed in various languages: among others, English (1888); Hebrew, 

Yiddish, Swedish, Lithuanian (1889); Danish, Bulgarian, Italian, Spanish, Czech (1890). 

Zamenhof's Unua Libro consisted of four parts, of which the longest was not the 

Complete textbook (Plena lernolibro), but rather the Foreword (Antaŭparolo), which filled 

pages 3 to 30. 

In the Foreword, Zamenhof first talked about the problems language diversity causes 

in every sphere of life and emphasized particularly that it provokes dissension among 

peoples. Like many language-project authors, he believed also that an international 

language would have great practical benefits for science and commerce, as well as for 

literature, but he placed particular emphasis on "the enormous usefulness to humanity of an 

international language that, without intruding into peoples' home life, could be a language 

of government and social interaction, at least in countries with diverse language groups." 

The Foreword also contains several texts in the international language: Our Father, 

Extract from the Bible, A Letter, In a Dream I Saw a Princess (translation of a poem by 

Heine), and two original poems by Zamenhof, Mia penso (My thought) and Ho, mia kor' 

(Oh, My Heart). 

Conscious of the fact that no one will bother to learn a language that no one else uses, 

Zamenhof launched, at the same time as his Unua Libro, a campaign to have people 

promise to learn the international language "if it is shown that ten million people have 

publicly made the same promise." He announced that the names and addresses of the ten 

million who had made the promise would be published in a separate book.  

In addition to the Foreword, the Russian version contained between its grey covers 

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eight reply coupons bearing the declaration quoted above that could be cut out, 

filled in and mailed to the author (pp. 31–34); 

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a complete textbook of the international language covering six pages and 

containing the following elements: the alphabet; rules for the parts of speech and 

general grammar – eight each for a total of sixteen rules (pp. 35–40); permission to 

translate the booklet into other languages (p. 41); the address of the author: Dr. L. 

Zamenhof, on behalf of Dr. Esperanto (p. 42); 

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an international language – national language dictionary (the Russian version has 

917 root words) on both sides of a large leaf. 

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the following declaration in the appropriate national language, which appeared on 

the second page: 

An international language, just like a national language, is public property, 

and the author hereby renounces forever all personal rights to it. 

What does Zamenhof's new language look like? 

It uses 22 letters of the Latin alphabet, dropping the letters q, w, x and y and adding 

six additional letters: ĉ [ch], ĝ [dj], ĥ [guttural ch, as in “loch”], ĵ [zh, as in “measure”], ŝ 

[sh], ŭ [w]. Each letter represents only one sound. For example, c is always pronounced 

[ts] and never [k] or [s]. 

The accent in a word always falls on the next-to-last syllable. 

The main parts of speech have specific endings: -o for the singular noun, -a for the 

singular adjective, -i for the infinitive, -e for adverbs derived from a root word. 

Indicative verbs take the ending -as for the present tense, -is for the past tense and -os 

for the future tense. The ending -u expresses a command or a wish and us expresses the 

conditional. Nouns take the ending –n to indicate a direct object and –j (pronounced like